Schools

DES-2026 Winter IT School Held at LNU

Lviv University completed the seventh Data Engineering and Security winter school, bringing together nearly 1,500 participants around modern IT disciplines.

On 30 January 2026, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv completed the seventh Data Engineering and Security winter IT school. Over two weeks, participants worked with Data Science, Cyber Security, Software Engineering and Generative AI, combining lectures with practice and project work.

DES-2026 became one of the largest educational events of the season: nearly 1,500 learners from Ukraine and other countries registered for the school. The programme was organised into three parallel streams, Core A, Core B and Core C, which made it possible to involve participants with different levels of preparation, from school pupils to students with prior technical experience.

The final stage of the school was the team project competition. Participants presented solutions developed during the programme, while a jury of academic and IT-industry representatives evaluated technical implementation, concept quality, teamwork and the potential practical value of the projects.

DES-2026 participants during the final stage of the school — DES-2026 combined lectures, mentoring support and teamwork on participants’ own IT solutions.

First places went to Fiducia, Unison and PetMap. AI-Driven, Traveler of Battle and PureTerra took second places. Third-place teams presented a broad range of solutions, from educational and cybersecurity services to platforms for health, planning, email assistance, recommendations, leisure and community support.

The Data Engineering and Security winter IT school was organised by Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. SoftServe became the silver partner of DES-2026, while NeuroForge, N-iX, Kevych Solutions, Kamula.tech, GlobalLogic, Sigma Software University, Stfalcon and Uitware joined as partners.

DES-2026 teams presenting projects — The project competition became a practical test of the skills gained during the school.

Information support was provided by Lviv IT Cluster, the Lviv University Science Park “Innovations and Entrepreneurship”, Leopolis.News, Content Media, West News.info, GalInfo and the Interdisciplinary Parliamentary Association “For Christian Values” of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Participants and supporters also included Kindgeek, EPAM, Avenga, Incora, Algo Tester, Span | Microsoft Solutions Partner, ELEKS, Intellias, Halmstad University, white hats PWR, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, National Technical University Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, Uzhhorod National University, PWC, the Association of Cybersecurity Specialists, Cyberdefence Academy and Tovsteniuk agency.

DES-2026 continued the school’s role as a practical education environment where students gain not only theory, but also experience presenting their own solutions to experts. The official award ceremony and final summary will be announced separately by the organisers.

This material is based on the Lviv University publication: original LNU news item.